p. 9 | ELEMENTS SHALL MELT by Albert H. Darrow

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Jun 20, 1906

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 32, No. 24.

ELEMENTS SHALL MELT.

By Albert H. Darrow

THE heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” 2 Peter 3:7-10.

“Of old hast Thou laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the work of Thy hands. They [heavens and earth] shall perish, but Thou [God] shalt endure; yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt Thou change them [by fire], and they shall be changed.” Ps. 102:25, 26.

“And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll.” Isa. 34:4. “Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath; for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner; but My salvation shall be forever, and My righteousness shall not be abolished.” Chapter 51:6.

“For the creature [“the whole creation,” verse 22] was made subject [destined] to vanity [nothingness], not willingly.” Rom. 8:20.

“Who among us shall dwell with [survive] the devouring fire?” Isa. 33:14. “The heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat.” 2 Peter 3:12. “The earth and the heaven fled away” in John’s vision of the future, “and there was found no place for them.” Rev. 20:11.

“Nevertheless we, according to His [God’s] promise, look for new heavens and a new earth.” 2 Peter 3:13. “And I [John] saw [in a vision of the future] a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away.” Rev. 21:1.

“The gold which can not be separated from the crushed ore to which it clings, goes with the worthless refuse of the grinding. So it is with man. He who can not be separated from his sin must go down with it in the wreck of Satan’s conspiracy against God.”

Some small hints of the approaching conflagration may be gleaned from the Chicago fire, the fire in Baltimore, the burning of the Iroquois theatre, the San Francisco fire, the Indianapolis railroad collision, the burning alive of twenty-five persons in “The House of All Nations” fire in New York, the fire which threatened the destruction of the Vatican at Rome, in the “forty-five cars destroyed in a conflagration caused by a dynamite explosion at Crestline, Ohio,” in the reported burning of a brigantine at sea by a meteor, in the Mount Pelée catastrophe, in the Calabria earthquake, the California earthquake, and numerous others, in the hail storm at Pueblo, Colo.; but what are any, or all of these combined, when compared to hailstones weighing fifty-seven pounds, and volcanoes and earthquakes ripping asunder and tossing about whole burning mountains, with streams of white-hot lava deluging with fire the hills and valleys, and thunders deafening, and lightnings blinding, and above all these the voice of the Son of God, distinctly audible amid the raging elements, commanding the gathering together of His saints, of those who have made a covenant with Him by sacrifice, and saying to others, “Depart from Me, ye cursed, into age-lasting fire, into fire unquenchable, devouring the adversaries”?

Then the so-called egg-shell of this earth will no longer be able to contain its yolk. The crust of the earth will be shattered into fragments; the molten lava of its interior will come surging forth, amid the din and roar of the exterior elements, precipitating all the horrors of a “wreck of matter and a crush of worlds.” Who then will survive? who then shall abide in the tabernacle of the Lord and dwell in His holy hill of Zion? The prophets tell us who: “He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil.” Isa. 33:15. “He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart. He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbor, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbor. In whose eyes a vile person is contemned; but he honoreth them that fear the Lord. He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not. He that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent.” Ps. 15:2-5.

“But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone; which is the second death.” Rev. 21:8.

How shall we be saved from this terrible fate?—By being saved now from our sins. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” ALBERT H. DARROW.